Montreal Canadiens defenceman Chris Wideman is set to call it a career after missing the entirety of the 2023-24 season with a back injury, he said to La Presse's Simon-Olivier Lorange on Tuesday.
It's been a tough go for the 34-year-old as he was ruled out indefinitely on the first day of training camp for the Canadiens back in September.
"I'm looking at where I finish, and even if there were so many difficult moments, I can still say that it was worth it," Wideman told Lorange. "All the difficulties, the pain, the nights without sleep, the doubts, the demons ... it was all a fight but it was worth it."
Wideman told Lorange he is still dealing with back pain and will continue rehabilitation following his playing career.
Wideman, a native of St. Louis, was selected by the Ottawa Senators in the fourth round (100th overall) in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.
He spent four years playing for Miami University (Ohio) and three years with the Binghamton Senators in the AHL before making his NHL debut for Ottawa in the 2015-16 season.
He spent four years in Ottawa before being dealt to the Edmonton Oilers in the 2018-19 season, then traded one more time that season to the Florida Panthers.
Then, after a few more years in the AHL and one in Russia's KHL with the Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo, he joined the Canadiens in the 2021-22 season as a free agent.
Wideman has 20 goals and 78 points in 291 career NHL games.
He played his final game for the Canadiens on April 13, 2023.
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